Happy Birthday, Me

So, last weekend had a pretty big milestone birthday. Apparently I am now at the age where it is expected that people send me birthday cards featuring dogs in sunglasses and funny hats. This is, quite frankly, awesome because dogs in sunglasses and funny hats are hilarious. Here’s a rundown of how the day went:

6:00 am: Dog needs to go out, wife gets up to do it BECAUSE IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!
7:00 am: Kids come in screaming “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Bound from floor to bed and from bed straight onto my diaphragm and windpipe.
7:45 am: Wife takes kids to soccer games and dance lessons; I stay home. BECAUSE IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!
7:46 am: Video games! (Horde mode in Gears 3, to be exact.)
10:30 am: Family returns, bearing a box of assorted donuts. Wife puts candles on one. Better than cake.
10:45: am: Presents! Handmade cards, new luggage, and a new Garmin 350 wrist GPS workout thingie
11:00 am: Make kids play outside. I stay inside and more video games!
12:00 pm: What’s for lunch? Donuts! BECAUSE IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!
2:30 pm: Head out for 5-mile tun to test out new Garmin device.
2:45 pm: Oh, god, maybe I shouldn’t have eaten so many donuts before this run…
5:00 pm: babysitter arrives.
6:00 pm: Steak dinner with lovely wife! Nice glass of Malbec!
7:30 pm: Buying pants and slippers at JC Pennys. (Hey, the opportunity presented itself.)
8:00 pm: Drinking beer out of huge plastic tumblers on the patio of local bar.
10:00 pm: Home again. Watch some tv with the wife before heading to bed.

Others might have wanted a big party with streamers and elephants and fireworks, but the above was much more my speed and I count it all as pretty awesome.

The next day, with Geralyn’s permission (heck, practically with her urging I returned the nice piece of luggage, took that and the birthday money from her aunt, and bought a brand new Playstation 3!

My collection is now complete, in that I now own all the modern gaming consoles –PC, Xbox, Wii, PS3. Looking forward to catching up on all those PS3 exclusive games that I’ve heard about. I think Little Big Planet is going to be a particular hit with the girls. And the PS3 is a Blu-Ray player as well, so I just updated my Netflix subscription to include those. You know, now that I’m old, I’ve got to get caught up on all this technology.

And while we’re on the topic, I really like the Garmin 350 as well. It’s basically a tool to help runners measure pace and distance using GPS technology. I really like being able to see what my current and average min/mile pace is at any point, and it’s great to be able to rely on the GPS to measure my distance on outdoor runs. It also came with a heart rate monitor, which I still don’t quite see the point of, but okay. I also love how you can connect the device to your computer and upload all your run data to Garmin.com and dailymile.com. That’s pretty slick.

i liked running with the heart rate monitor because it was a good feedback system to tell me to slow down or speed up depending on where it was. Happy birthday old man. I still have time before that birthday. Although, being fit and 40 is better than being fat and 40 which is where I’m going to be if I don’t get off my butt.